1. [RPI] Renssaleer Polytechnic Institute local slang roughly
equivalent to the positive sense of geek,
referring to people who prefer technical hobbies to socializing.

2. In older usage at RPI, the term signified someone new to college
life, fresh out of high school, and wet behind the ears.

An IEEE Spectrum article (4/95, page 16) once derived
‘nerd’ in its variant form ‘knurd’ from the word
‘drunk’ backwards; this etymology was common at RPI. Though it
is commonly confused with nerd, it appears these
words have separate origins (compare the
kluge/kludge pair).